Boats make their way to Husky Stadium via Union Bay on Lake Washington as part of a “sail-gate” gathering before Washington’s home games.

As if a 2-0 start to the season against Pac-12 Conference opponents wasn’t big enough, University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich had yet another splash in mind for Saturday’s game at 23rd-ranked Washington.
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As if a 2-0 start to the season against Pac-12 Conference opponents wasn’t big enough, University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich had yet another splash in mind for Saturday’s game at 23rd-ranked Washington.

“I really dreamt of being 2-0 and taking the team to Husky Stadium on a boat, dressed as a pirate with Hawaiian flags flying,” amid the traditional game-bound flotilla of charter boats, yachts and dinghies, Rolovich said.

For decades Huskies football faithful by the thousands have arrived at Husky Harbor on the shore of Lake Washington fronting Husky Stadium in what is known as a “sail-gating” tradition. But never in the 99-year existence of the stadium, a school official said, has a visiting team arrived that way.

“But, it doesn’t look like it is gonna happen now, either,” Rolovich sighed Monday in lamenting what might have been.

Liability and permitting issues apparently sunk the SS Pride Rock’s planned maiden game-day voyage from suburban Bellevue, Wash., to Husky Harbor before it got seaborne. Or else a bunch of 300-pound linemen might have had the opportunity.

Mike Leach, the colorful Washington State head coach and self-styled pirate “thought it was a great idea when I told him about it,” Rolovich said.

“When I called (UW coach) Chris Petersen and said, ‘Hey, instead of a bus, I’m thinking of bringing the team on a boat,’ he said, ‘I wish I’d thought of that.’ ”

The plan took shape in the offseason when a UH graduate couple living in the Seattle area whom Rolovich, offensive coordinator Brian Smith and quarterbacks coach Craig Stutzmann had gone to school with informed them that they had a buddy who had just purchased a large yacht. The yacht, they explained, could be made available to the Rainbow Warriors for the crossing if they were interested.

The more Rolovich thought about it, the more he liked the suggestion and began making calls. This is, after all, a coach who dresses in costume for spring practice and other occasions, and somebody who brought an Elvis impersonator and fortune teller to the Mountain West Conference Football Media Days.

And, then, Rolovich decided to add yet another wrinkle.

Since the ’Bows were going to need buses to take them from the stadium to Seattle-Tacoma airport after the game for the flight home, Rolovich said he wanted to make the buses available to bring Seattle area youth football teams to the stadium.

Can you imagine, Rolovich said, still excited by the prospect, “The Pac-12 Network TV cameras there to film us getting off the buses at the stadium and a bunch of Pop Warner teams getting off instead? That would have been awesome.”